The invention relates to an electric coupling for railways, having a first and a second coupling part each comprising a support in which a plurality of linking parts are arranged by means of which an electric, pneumatic and/or hydraulic link can be established from one coupling part to another coupling part.
In modern trains, such an electric coupling is arranged next to the mechanical coupling which connects the carriages of a train or the railcars of train parts. Via the electric coupling, electric, pneumatic and/or hydraulic connections are then established between the carriages of a train or from one railcar to the next railcar.
In the recent past, there is an increased need for a high-frequency data transmission from carriage to carriage or from railcar to railcar. On the one hand, control commands can in this way be transmitted from one railcar to the next one. On the other hand, multimedia contents which can be offered to the passengers can also be transmitted by a data transmission of this type.
It is basically known that the high-frequency data transmission can be realized by plugs, as known for example from Ethernet cables. Such plug connectors are however not suitable for use in railways, as they would become inoperative very quickly due to the unavoidable impurities in case of a connection from one carriage to the other. Different suggestions are therefore known in the state of the art to establish the high-frequency data transmission by means of a radio link from one carriage to the other one, or from one railcar of a train part to the railcar of a second train part. The drawback consists here in that comparatively large distances are to be overcome from carriage to carriage, and much more from one railcar to the next one, which lead to problems with respect to the security against eavesdropping and the susceptibility to be interfered from the outside. In the data transmission from one railcar to the next one, the problem furthermore arises that the antenna required for the data transmission has to be mounted in the vehicle structure, which leads to difficulties with respect to the structural rigidity and the electric linking of the antenna.